LUCIOUS & COOKIE: TUG OF WAR (REMASTERED)

THE CHIEF LEGAL COUNSEL

It's been over a year since I fell into that comma. My memory is still a little fuzzy on exactly what happened and how I got to the hospital, and I can't really recall much leading up to my incident.  

Lucious told me that someone dumped me off in front of a hospital in Jersey, and I was transferred to a hospital in Maryland before the private investigator he hired found me.

The last thing I do remember before waking up in the private rehabilitation center my boy had put me in, is meeting with Cookie at that restaurant in Brooklyn. That was the day I told her what she already knew.... Lucious had indeed killed Bunky.

Yeah, Bunky had gotten out of control with his drinking and gambling, but we had all been friends for so long, brothers damn near. I never thought that Lucious would kill him.

When he told me to follow Cookie around and keep an eye on her because she had it in for him, I knew she had to have found out about what'd happened.

I know that nigga Lucious. I know when he's lying and when he's hiding something, hell I'm no angel myself but, I've been covering for him since our hustling days. Since we were youngsters on the streets of Philly, me, Lucious, and Bunky always had each other's backs. I did and still do feel some type of way about him killing our friend, which is why I talked to the Feds.

Trying to find out the exact nature of the building I saw Cookie come out of that day, I went in, and low and behold it was the damn FBI.

Rationalizing that she had snitched on his ass, I said what the hell since they already knew the dirt, I might as well fill in the holes of what she couldn't. I felt that if I didn't do something drastic to protect her, once Lucious found out that she'd went to the Feds he was liable to try and kill her too.

No matter how much he loves her, he really may have killed her for that, and I couldn't let that happen. I was nervous because he's so unpredictable, shit he killed Bunky he'd kill my ass too if I got on his bad side, so I had to play my position.

The boys were just getting their mother back and they needed her, especially Dre, since Lucious had never been there to support him through his illness.

When I woke up it was hard for me to talk, and the doctors explained to me what had happened. They told me how lucky I was to be alive and to not have had as extensive an amount of brain damage as I could have.

GOD was with me.... That had to have been the only way I survived that shit.

Lucious, Cookie, and the boys came down later that day and I was shocked as hell to see her holding a baby and sporting a glacier sized ring on her finger. Lucious' ass was smiling from ear to ear, and he filled me in on what I'd missed during the time I was out.

Baby girl couldn't have been no more than six months old, but she was definitely a Lyon. Jamal brought Lola down with them as well and I was really confused because they looked different than the family I remembered before all this mess happened.

After a while, the rest of the family left, and Lucious stayed behind with me for a little bit. He explained what happened at the Legacy concert with the Feds and them not having enough evidence against him to pursue the case because they couldn't locate their key witness.

Lu said while he was inside, he was trying to figure out who the person was, but he never did. He thought that it was Cookie at first, but it turned out that she'd never snitched on him at all.

Oh hell, I thought to myself in that moment. Trying to protect baby girl, I almost got her ass killed anyway.

Right now, they have me in a damn stiff ass brace to stabilize my neck so I can't really move much but with all the pain killers they've got me on I can't feel a thing anyway.

Lucious was real with me about having planned some crazy shit to get back at Cookie, Andre, and Hakeem. Then he told me that the week before he was to be released and was going to put his plan into motion, Cookie dropped the baby bomb on him, changing everything.

Me and Lucious talked about pretty much everything before I was injured, but he hadn't told me that he and Cookie had hooked up again. It must've been intense because even through all the women he's had since she went in, he's never slipped up and gotten any of them pregnant.

I was surprised at first but the more I think about it, I'm not surprised.... She's always been the one that makes him toss his judgement in the wind.

"Yo, how the hell you knock Cookie up again, while your ass was engaged to Anika at that." I grinned as he shrugged his shoulders and chuckled. 

"Aye man..." He exhaled through a smirk, "You know how it is with me and her, shit just happens bruh." He replied. "It wasn't planned but I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't good though. The shit was mind blowing on the real." He admitted then continued to give me the breakdown of where things are now after all the time I've missed.

Yeah...I do know Lucious and Cookie, those two were like rabbits back in the day and from the looks of it they've picked right back up where they'd left off. Man, I don't know how many times I came by to make a drop back in the day and they'd be upstairs, in the garage, in the kitchen, or in the back of that old ass hooptie of his, getting it in. It was crazy.

They've had each other sprung from that very first meeting on the block.

Nevertheless, I've got bigger problems to worry about than being up in this hospital. I know that it'll only be a matter of time before that damn agent Carter finds out I'm lucid and brings her ass down here to try and get me back on their side against Lucious.

FOUR MONTHS LATER

Coming out of physical therapy, I hopped into the car waiting for me, and adjusted my jacket around my shoulders. The fucking Feds come at me about three months ago, I knew it wasn't gonna take long. I was nervous as hell that someone up in the place was going to tip Lucious off that they came by but so far so good.

I played the shit like monopoly; I didn't and don't remember shit was all they got. Every question they came at me with about something I'd told them that day in their office I refuted, I'm the chief legal counsel for Empire so if I can't do anything else.... I can talk myself out of a fucked-up situation.

After so long, Carter started getting frustrated but since I never gave them a recorded statement, they can't prove a thing. My doctor confirmed that there was a strong possibility that I wouldn't be able to remember my damn name, let alone something that happened close to the time I was injured.

True, I remember everything bout that shit, but I sure as hell ain't about to spill those beans now. Cookie's forgiven Lucious, it appears that he's trying to work on his relationship with the boys, and despite his many short comings my man didn't leave me out there to die in the street like a rat. He made sure I was taken care of by the best.... He saved my life.

They've got little mama now too and I can't let her grow up without her father in her life because of me...Nah, I just can't do it.

As the car pulled off down the street, I prepared myself for what's to come. Lucious asked me to be his best man. He and Cookie pushed the wedding back so that I could finish my PT and be back on my feet to stand beside him.

Four months later, here I am. Blessed to be alive.... but in the back of my mind, I keep wondering about if the day will ever come, where my actions will catch up to me and I'll become just another casualty of war in the Wrath of Lucious Lyon.